You may need to carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before you can start work. For this you need permission from the Forestry Commission in Scotland or the Forest Service in Northern Ireland.

Good practice

Take all reasonable and practical steps to avoid the risk of pollution during works.

Avoid using acidic, metal or sulphide-rich spoil from mine workings for road construction. Drainage water rich in metals, acid or sulphide can be extremely toxic to all species living in nearby streams or ponds.

Avoid using very fine material such as quarry dust for road surfacing as rain can wash it into watercourses.

Watercourses

Keep disturbance and silt levels to a minimum when using road construction equipment around watercourses. Disturbed soil can damage riverbed ecology and water quality.

Avoid unnecessary work within watercourses. If you have to carry out essential in-stream work, you should:

avoid wet weather, when run-off from bare ground can pollute the water with silt

avoid the summer months, when river flows are low and work can damage fish habitats and spawning areas.

DAERA (Northern Ireland) has produced a handbook is for landowners and people and organisations involved in carrying out activities that may alter the physical characteristics or flows of rivers and other waterbodies. The activities covered include dredging and substrate addition, removal of bankside vegetation, bed and bank reinforcements, flow manipulation and culverting.

Whats new on NetRegs

Waste – Duty of Care Roles and Responsibilities

The Northern Ireland Environment Agency has published a short guide to the duty of care responsibilities including advice and information for waste producers, carriers and those accepting, storing and treating waste.

Guidance from your environmental regulator

9 NEW GPPs (Guidance for Pollution Prevention) available now

The NetRegs team at SEPA, in partnership with The Northern Ireland Environment Agency, Natural Resources Wales and a number of industry bodies have produced 9 new GPPs to replace out of date PPGs. More are coming! Check the available topics